Application virtualization is a generally known technique for decoupling an application from its underlying operating system to eliminate application conflicts and streamline application delivery and management. One example of a solution that provides application virtualization is ThinApp®, made available by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. A virtual application is generated by encapsulating application resources into a virtual application package that can be deployed, managed, and updated independently from the underlying operating system (OS). The package itself is enclosed within a virtualized container file. The application package includes an executable virtualization layer logically interposed between the OS and the application, providing a sandbox-type of environment (sometimes referred to as a “virtualized environment”) isolated, or partially isolated, from the underlying OS or other applications. As such, the virtual applications do not make any changes to the underlying OS and continue to behave the same across different configurations for compatibility, consistent end-user experiences, and ease of management.
As stated, virtualized application packages that encapsulate applications are able to isolate applications from underlying operating systems. Benefits of virtualizing within virtualized application packages files include the ability to run the applications on various versions of operating systems, whether the application would be installable on that version of the operating system otherwise. For example, if an application is compatible with Microsoft Windows® version 7 but not with Microsoft Windows® version 10, the application can be packaged into a virtualized application package that that runs on version 10, but where the files within the package create a version 7 runtime environment for the application. The virtualization layer merges the underlying physical and virtual resources to fool an application into thinking that it is running as if it were fully installed.
Virtualized application software ideally does not have any pre-installed components and does not require the installation of device drivers, thus allowing applications to run from USB flash drives or network shares without requiring administrator rights. Virtualized application software, such as ThinApp®, is also able to scan a system before and after an application's installation and create a portable virtualized container, containing a virtualized application package, based upon changes made to the system files and registry.
A virtualized application package on remote network storage provides storage savings. However, the use of a virtualized container stored in network storage can result in delays caused by network congestion.